Hey, Wait!

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Our heroine has talked her way past a security checkpoint on her way to uncovering the government's dirty secrets... almost. Just as she's about to round the corner, though, the guard cries, "Hey, wait!" Our hearts pound — she's been caught!

But no — the guard just wanted to tell her she left her keys on his desk. Or she's to report to Drill Sergeant Nasty for a potato-peeling Mini-Game. Or it's past time for her shift guarding the Easily Rescued Prisoner's cell. A Cat Scare for The Infiltration, if you will.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

Subverted in Cyborg 009: In Albert's Backstory, he was trying to pass the Berlin Wall. Everything checks out, but as he starts driving through, the guard realizes he still has Albert's wallet and calls out "Hey, wait!" Albert panics and floors it; it didn't end well.

In Digimon Adventure, this is played with. Wizardmon successfully lies that he is going to relieve Bakemon, and talks him into handing over the key to Myotismon's coffin.

One Piece: Happens to Usopp in the G8 arc, just after he's disguised himself as a marine. The soldier stopping the pirate just scold him for his uniform being in disarray.

Early on in Yu-Gi-Oh!, two of Yugi's non-duelist friends stow away on the ship carrying Yugi and Jonouchi to Duelist Kingdom, where official rules state that those who have no Star Chips are to be ejected from the island. On the way off the boat Honda walks stiffly past the guards, who notice him... only to tell him to loosen up a bit. The non-duelists' presence on the island is not questioned at any point, even through the several periods in which they are in the presence of tournament officials who are throwing people off the island for having no Star Chips.

Happens later when Keith attempts to sneak off with Jou's tournament finalist card while the latter is sleeping in the anime. Jou screams this, only to mumble "That's my pizza!". Turns out he's just sleep talking.

Comic Books

In the Marvel ComicsStar Wars story "The Stenax Shuffle!", Han and the others are trying to sneak past an Imperial Governor. They're almost out of range when he shouts at them to halt. Turns out he was yelling at Han for dropping his shovel.

Sulley has just snuck a human child into the scare factory, which is currently under thorough inspection for any sign of human children. Suddenly, a group of Child Detection Agents run up to him — "Hey wait, that's the guy! Can we have your autograph?"

Something similar happens earlier, too: When Sully is gathering up Mike's paperwork, finds the door that's left behind, and hides to see who's working after hours against the rules, Randall emerges and begins carting his scream canisters out, but suddenly pauses as if he saw Sully out of the corner of his eye. Turns out he just had to sneeze.

Something similar happens earlier, too: When Woody is trying to escape through the restroom window, the camera pans to the janitor looking at the mirror — in which Woody is plainly visible — and commenting in surprise. Woody gasps. Then a Rack Focus reveals a patch of scum on the mirror just big enough to obscure him, as the janitor reaches up to wipe it off. By the time his hand comes down, Woody is already out the window.

Henchman: You didn't really think you'd get away with this, did you? Austin: I did, actually, yes. Henchman: It's time for your physical.

Cry Freedom: When crossing the boarder to Lesotho, a South-African custom officer stops Woods to give him back the bag he forgot during customs check. The bag actually contains his book denouncing Apartheid and the murder of Biko. Woods averts it by stating it only contains a few travel stuff and a bible. The officer give it back to him, saying he indeed felt some papers inside.

Inverted in Equilibrium: the sweepers' commander demanded Preston's ID, which was in the trunk of his car (with a puppy, which he was hiding), in a hostile tone. The scene escalates the sense of an impending shootout, just when the commander recognizes Preston, makes an excuse and turns around. And then it ends in a shootout anyway.

In The Grifters, the male protagonist is stopped by a cop right after getting sucker-punched in a bar when one of his cons was exposed. The cop had seen him staggering, and thought he was drunk or ill and wanted to make sure if he was alright.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy gets stopped by a sergeant and told off for having an ill-fitting guard outfit. Indy, being Indy, gets a much better fitting uniform from the sergeant. What makes it especially funny is that this is itself a subversion of a trope — Indy's first uniform didn't fit because he got it from a random guy and there's no reason a random guy would be the same size as the hero, decades of film to the contrary.

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy comes face-to-face with Der Führer himself. We are certain something bad is about to happen to our hero, or the book he's carrying (given that this is at a book burning and the book has Hebrew in it)... but no, instead he gets Hitler's (inaccurately portrayed) autograph.

Iron Man features an extended scene that is one big Hey Wait! between Obadiah Stane (the villain) and Pepper Potts (the sidekick) after she has downloaded the files involving his conspiracy. Unusually for this trope, though, Stane does realize what happened... just after Potts gets out of his reach, and starts talking with the guy from S.H.I.E.L.D.

Early in Layer Cake, the protagonist is stopped by a police officer under very unfortunate circumstances, this being a rare occasion in which he was carrying around his "business supplies" (tools for making cocaine ready to sell). Luckily for him, the officer just wanted to know if he had seen a prowler sighted in the area.

Slight twist on this in the first Mission: Impossible film. The character of Luther leaves his seat on the TGV and a train attendant hey waits him to return his cell phone. The problem is, the cell phone was rigged up to block a transmission of the Mac Guffin information, and by taking it away, Luther risked letting the info into the open.

Ocean's Eleven (the one with George Clooney): Livingston is stopped after bugging the casino's camera system...because the other employee noticed that he dropped his portable TV (which, unbeknownst to the employee, is what he's using to view the camera feeds).

Happens in Psycho, as Marion is pulling away from California Charlie's (with the scary sunglasses-wearing cop watching) in the car she's just bought. (She forgot to get her suitcase from her old car.)

The Red Violin: When Samuel L. Jackson's character, Moritz, enters the auction house, he tells the valet, "Don't let me forget this" (his overcoat). Later, just after he leaves the auction house, crossing the street, having stolen the Red Violin, someone calls out to him, and, in shock, he almost gets hit by a car, but it's just the valet — he forgot his overcoat.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Peter Guillam has just stolen a file from the Circus when he's detained and grilled about his connection to Ricky Tarr (all the time the file is in his briefcase). It's not surprising he flips out and assaults Tarr afterwards.

Who Dares Wins (1982) aka The Final Option. Terrorists in disguise as a military band are walking into the front entrance of the US Embassy, when a security officer stops them...to say they're supposed to enter through the servants entrance.

Literature

Inverted in Medalon, in which one of the heroes calls the guards back to make another innocent remark to make their situation seem more plausible.

In the third Noob novel, the protagonists are masquerading as players from the Coalition, their enemy faction, to better investigate strange things happening in a forest near the enemy capital. The phenomenon they are investigating attracts the attention of Non-Player Character city guards. When they get interrogated by the guards, the team Man Child spins a coverup tale so irrealistic by the setting's standards that it's almost an accidental Refuge in Audacity. When the quest finally gives the protagonists the opportunity to ditch the guards, one of the guards calls them out: it turns out the guards came on flying mounts that can carry double, and they were just asking the protagonists if they wanted a ride into town.

In Merlin 1X04, when Gwen goes to deliver the meal to the jailed Arthur to find out if he successfully retrieved the Mortius Flower, this occurs just as she's leaving, with the flower on her tray, but it turns out that the guard just wanted a bite from the food Arthur rejected.

In Robin Hood Djaq disguises herself as a serving girl and walks past Guy of Gisborne. Hey Wait... he just wants to remind her to keep the Sheriff's cup full.

In the 1984 miniseries of V (1983), La Résistance is infiltrating a press conference using a forged security pass. Even though the pass has just been checked electronically, one of the Visitors insists on looking at it closely for no apparent reason.

At the beginning of Fahrenheit, the main character has just killed a man in the bathroom of a diner. If you try to leave through the front door, the cashier calls for you to stop. You can either stop and listen, or bolt out the door anyways; in either case, she was only trying to remind you to pay your bill. Paying your bill or bolting changes the cashier's testimony when the detectives (your other Player Characters) question her.

In Fallout 2, if you infiltrate a base in old-fashioned power armor, a sergeant notices, and then sends you to get some spangly new power armor from the Armory. Note that he's absolutely furious, because he naturally assumes that you've lost it and are trying to play off like you never had any. Sergeant Dornan is probably the best character in the game simply for the dialogue you get if you talk to him while not wearing the Mark II Power Armor. Even better: he stops you for wearing the second-best armor in the game to order you to go equip the best armor.

In Final Fantasy IX, Steiner is trying to smuggle Princess Garnet across the border to Treno, by posing as a travelling labourer while Garnet hides in a sack of pickles he's carrying. As he's about to walk out of the other side of the border control point, a guard yells after him to stop... because all the necessary paperwork has been completed and Steiner's new passport is ready.

In Final Fantasy VI, the guard in Celes' room seems to wake up when Locke rescues her. He's actually just sleepwalking.

In Final Fantasy VII, this happens when Cloud sneaks into Junon, and he has to go march in a parade.

In San Three Kingdoms Comic, Dong Zhuo caught Lu Bu making out with Diao Chan and gave chase. When cornered, Dong Zhuo just revealed that Lu Bu that the latter left his wallet on the former's room.

Western Animation

In the Adventure Time episode Death in Bloom, as Finn and Jake are sneaking around in the Land of the Dead, a skeleton yells Halt! He was talking to his friend, Halt.

Variation in American Dad!: While Stan is away, Steve and his friends go into his study and accidentally flies and crashes a Predator drone. When Stan returns, he calls Steve to the study, noting that the Predator computer shifted while he was gone (and repeatedly, just to build the tension). Then he announces he is wrong and it is where Steve had left it, and tells him to forget about it. Double Subverted when moments later Stan can't connect and finds it missing from its hangar.

For example, when entering Omashu with Aang dressed as an old man, the guard lets them through, pauses, then makes Sokka carry the old man's pack.

And again, when trying to lay low in to the Fire Nation, the guards notice he's acting highly suspicious, and force him to attend the school whose uniform he stole off a clothesline.

In The Batman: Detective Yin tells Bruce Wayne, "I know your secret." It turns out that the "secret" she's figured out is that he's actually an intelligent and caring person rather than the shallow playboy he pretends to be.

In an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn meets Bruce Wayne after she's been set free for having served her sentence at Arkam and covers the top half of his face, saying she recognizes that chin. Bruce thinks that his secret identity has been blown, but it turns out that she was recognizing him as Bruce Wayne- the man who's gala she and the Joker had crashed during a heist.

Superman: The Animated Series; a janitor working at a prison is about to enter a wing where electronic devices aren't allowed. Being an idiot who doesn't want to relinquish his headphone set to the checkpoint guy, he stuffs it in his pocket. The guard at the checkpoint seems to notice this, and stops him; but it's actually because of the janitor's watch. (And as expected, there's a reason for this rule - Live Wire's cell is in the wing - which the careless janitor soon discovers.)

In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Infernal Slumber" where Mac spends the whole night trying to keep his friends' voices down when they invite themselves over for a sleepover, he spends the morning trying to distract his mom so she doesn't catch them sneaking out. We hear her call his name, he panics because he thinks she caught them. It just turns out she saw how clean their apartment is (that Wilt did) and thanks him for doing that. After she leaves, the friends break a hole in their roof to take back their photos. This trope happens again when she opens the door and appears to notice the hole in the roof. Turns out she just forgot her purse.

Regular Show: Happens in J.G. Quintel's student animation "2 in the AM PM" when a cop visits the gas station while Quintel's and Sam Marin's characters are hallucinating on LSD.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: 'Pursuit of Peace' has a villainous example. General Grievous sent a group of droids designed for infiltration and suicide-bombing to destroy a Corruscant power-plant. The droids were built to look like sweeper-droids in their disguised forms, and were given fake permits to enter the secured zone. After a clone sentry had examined the permit, and had let the droids pass, he stopped them again as they were about to turn around the corner . . . because they almost turned the wrong corner!

Star Wars Rebels: "An Inside Man" has an inversion. A disguised Kanan and Ezra are attempting to get out of the Imperial complex while the Imperials are checking everyone's IDs, searching for the infiltrators. An elevator opens and Agent Kallus orders them inside. They get in, assuming their cover is still intact, only for Kallus to reveal he knows who they are — because he's turned Reverse Mole.

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